diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index 249aa7f320..f2bce5ce6b 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -1,4 +1,6 @@
-Mon Mar 22 17:37:58 2010  Nobuyoshi Nakada  <nobu@ruby-lang.org>
+Mon Mar 22 18:01:13 2010  Nobuyoshi Nakada  <nobu@ruby-lang.org>
+
+	* configure.in (RMDIRS): use rmdir -p if possible.
 
 	* Makefile.in ({dist,real}clean-ext): fix for removing ext
 	  directories.
diff --git a/configure.in b/configure.in
index 1b1b115716..ae1fb42099 100644
--- a/configure.in
+++ b/configure.in
@@ -337,7 +337,12 @@ AC_USE_SYSTEM_EXTENSIONS
 
 AC_SUBST(RM, ['rm -f'])
 AC_SUBST(CP, ['cp'])
-AC_SUBST(RMDIRS, ['$(top_srcdir)/tool/rmdirs'])
+RMDIRS='$(top_srcdir)/tool/rmdirs'
+mkdir "rmdirs_$$_test" "rmdirs_$$_test/a"
+rmdir -p "rmdirs_$$_test/a" 2>/dev/null &&
+{ test -d "rmdirs_$$_test" || RMDIRS='rmdir -p'; }
+rmdir "rmdirs_$$_test/a" "rmdirs_$$_test" 2>/dev/null
+AC_SUBST(RMDIRS)
 AC_SUBST(RMALL, ['rm -fr'])
 
 AC_MSG_CHECKING([for cd using phisical directory])